One flight, and then problems... Holystone HS720R

Ralf1958 · Feb 10, 2024

I had a very uneventful flight last weekend, orienting myself on the flight controls on this new drone. Did post flight routine checks & cleaning, then put it on the charger for next time.

I ran through my pre-flight today, and hooked everything up... but the drone failed in the vertical geomagnetic orientation process.
I turned it 360 degrees, vertically, probably two dozen times... and got no response. I shut everything down cold, and toggled airplane mode (on my new Samsung 5G phone), then powered up and reconnected everything. It failed at the same point... vertical orientation. Horizontal orientation catches after two complete turns. All communications showed green, or a connected status.

I stopped trying after four attempts. Same failure point in the steps. There are plenty of satellites available, and the weather was good.

This looks like a drone electronics malfunction to me. Anyone have any input?

Ralf1958 · Feb 11, 2024

Tried again today... same results.

I have written to customer service at Holystone, and submitted a video of the problem as it is occurring. We'll see what they say.

Droneaddiction · Feb 12, 2024

Did you do the three rotations horizontal or just two? Try holding it still and spinning your body. I know it sounds stupid, but it's easier sometimes than dealing with all the props and things.

Ralf1958 · Feb 13, 2024

Hello Droneaddiction. The (first step) horizontal orientation always completed successfully, It was the vertical that was giving me problems.

Customer service at Holystone sent me a link to a Youtube video that explained the probable cause.

I'm not doing the vertical orientation (rotations) correctly. I'm holding the drone "head up", but turning the body vertically like a cartwheel (spinning on a horizontal axis). Their video shows the proper way is to spin on the vertical axis (with the head up). I haven't tried it yet, but I'm pretty sure that's the problem. I'm certainly feeling pretty stupid.

I'm not sure why it worked the first time, unless I was just lucky. In my defense, I was left unsupervised by my wife.

Droneaddiction · Feb 13, 2024

Ralf1958 said:
Hello Droneaddiction. The (first step) horizontal orientation always completed successfully, It was the vertical that was giving me problems.

Customer service at Holystone sent me a link to a Youtube video that explained the probable cause.

I'm not doing the vertical orientation (rotations) correctly. I'm holding the drone "head up", but turning the body vertically like a cartwheel (spinning on a horizontal axis). Their video shows the proper way is to spin on the vertical axis (with the head up). I haven't tried it yet, but I'm pretty sure that's the problem. I'm certainly feeling pretty stupid.

I'm not sure why it worked the first time, unless I was just lucky. In my defense, I was left unsupervised by my wife.

Glad you were able to find resolution.